PSU Dividends to Govt Have Doubled in Last Five Years: Report
New Delhi: The Union government has doubled the dividends it has received from public sector companies (PSUs) in the last five years to Rs 74,000 crore, according to a report by The Hindu, and a large chunk of these dividends came from five few oil, gas and coal companies.
The report, based on the company-wise dividend data from the Department of Investment and Public Asset Management (DIPAM), stated that these five fuel-related PSUs accounted for Rs 1.27 lakh crore, or 42.3% of the total Rs 3 lakh crore dividends the Union government has collected between the financial years 2020-21 and 2024-25.
These companies are Coal India Ltd, Oil & Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC), Indian Oil Corporation (IOC), Bharat Petroleum Corporation (BPCL) and Gail (India).
Coal India alone gave Rs 10,252 crore, followed by ONGC with a payment of Rs 10,002 crore and BPCL with Rs 3,562.47 crore in 2024-25.
This is excluding dividends received from the Reserve Bank of India and the nationalised banks.
While the DIPAM data shows that IOC and BPCL together saw a 255% increase in their dividend payouts to the government since 2022-23 and a 65% decrease in oil prices, only a 2% decrease in petrol prices was passed on to the public.
As per policy revisions in November 2024, central PSUs must now deliver at least 30% of its profit after tax (PAT) or 4% of its net worth as dividends, whichever is higher. This is a big chunk of government revenue.
A government official was quoted by The Hindu as saying that this is due to a “calibrated” approach to balance revenues from disinvestments and dividends.
“The government’s disinvestment policy announced during the pandemic is still very much in place, but it is not progressing as fast as it was initially hoped,” the official was quoted as saying, “At the same time, many PSUs are turning profitable and so the government is maximising the dividends it can earn from them.”
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